Early Signs of War in the 1930’s

• War between Japan and China• World wide depression caused

by many factors• European economic problems

weakened the popularity of democratic governments in Europe

• Roosevelt ignores these developments at first-Why?

Japanese Attack Manchuria (1931)

League of Nations condemned the action.

Japan leaves the League. Hoover wanted no part in an American military

action in the Far East.

Stimson Doctrine(1932)

US would not recognize any territorial acquisitions that were achieved by force.

Japan was infuriated because the US hadconquered new territories a few decades earlier.

Japan bombed Shanghai in 1932 massive casualties.

FDR’s “Good Neighbor” Policy

Important to have all nations in the Western Hemisphere united in lieu of foreign aggressions.

FDR The good neighbor respects himself and the rights of others.

Policy of non-intervention and cooperation.

American Isolationism

• What are the examples of America’s isolation in the 1930’s?

Senator Gerald P. Nye [R-ND]

The 1930’s: A Volatile World

FDR Recognizes the Soviet Union

(late 1933)FDR felt that

recognizing Moscow might bolster the US against Japan.

Maybe trade with the USSR would help the US economy during the Depression.

The Early Aggression of Adolf Hitler

• Violation of the Treaty of Versailles—Rearmament

• Reoccupy and remilitarize the Rhineland (1936)

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

The American “Lincoln Brigade”

US Neutrality

Intensified American Isolationism (cont.)

• FDR’s “Quarantine Speech” (10/37)– After Japan’s invasion

of China– Proposed that

democracies should act together to “quarantine any aggressor”

• USS Panay Incident (12/37)

• Ludlow amendment proposed (1938)

Fascist Aggression 1935: Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty &

the League of Nations [re-arming!] Mussolini attacks Ethiopia.

1936: German troops sent into the Rhineland. Fascist forces sent to fight with Franco in Spain.

1938: Austrian Anschluss. Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Pact [AXIS] Munich Agreement APPEASEMENT!

1939: German troops march into the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact.

September 1, 1939: German troops march into Poland blitzkrieg WW II begins!!!

World War II Begins…

U.S. Reaction to the start of WW II• Isolationism at its

peak in the late 1930’s

• Neutrality in action but not thought–“Cash and Carry”–CDAAA organized

(1940)• Paris falls in June

1940

U.S. Reaction to WW II (cont.)

• “America First” movement (1940)

• “Destroyers for bases” deal (Sept., 1940)

• The Lend-Lease Act (March, 1941)

• Lend-Lease Aid to the Soviets (June, 1941)

U.S. Reaction to Hitler’s Aggression

• American “neutrality patrols”

• The Atlantic Charter (Aug. 1941)

• Undeclared naval war with the Germans in the Atlantic ocean– USS Greer (Sept.

1941)– USS Reuben James

(Oct. 1941) •

Japanese Aggression in the Far East

• Make a list of the sources of tension between the US and Japan from the 1880’s to 1940?

• After Japan extended their control in China, the US placed restrictions on oil exports to Japan

• Japan began to look around southeast Asia for oil

The Road to Pearl Harbor•Japan wanted to create the “Greater-East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” That was code for a Japanese Empire.

•America contested that and hoped the Japanese would curtail their Pacific Expansion.

•Japan saw the Pacific Ocean as an “American Lake” and the American Navy as a threat to their ambitions.

• Invades Northern Indochina (Summer of 1940)

• Tripartite Pact (Sept., 1940)

• Invades southern Indochina (July, 1941)

• The Japanese knew that this would threaten US interests in the Pacific

• Japanese militarists including Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo wanted war with America and figured we had no stomach for a protracted Asian war

•The task of dealing with the Americans fell to Admiral Isoroku

Yamamoto.

•Yamamoto studied here in the United States (Naval War College and Harvard) and knew us well. Unlike other Japanese military, he respected us.

•Yamamoto planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. The idea was to crush the American Navy and then, hopefully, negotiate a settlement in place of a long, bloody war.—”Limited Goals”

•Yamamoto promised 6 months of success before American industrial might turned the tables

•Yamamoto also knew that NOTHING would make the Americans angrier.

•After the raid at Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto said:

“I am afraid all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

The Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor

• A “Surprise” Attack

• The significance of the aircraft carrier

• “Day of Infamy”• “Tora, Tora, Tora!”• The problem

created by the attack for the Japanese

• Conspiracy theory?